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149 “The feud between the Sutton and Taylor parties, which had likely to have provided a bloody encounter lately, at Cuero, has been happily adjusted.” Austin Daily Democratic Statesman, January 22, 1874 he killing of Jack Helm certainly caused members of the Sutton party great concern as it was obvious that with Hardin’s leadership , the lay of the battlefields had changed in favor of the Taylors. Hardin’s unbridled and psychopathic aggressiveness was now openly shown. He may have seen himself as a freedom fighter, killing the enemies who would kill him and his friends or deny his liberty. Sutton had been wounded in an ambush and he and Capt. Joe Tumlinson both now may have pondered their next moves in the wake of the killing machine that Wesley Hardin was. As Jim Taylor had made it clear to all, he wanted the chance to kill Bill Sutton, and he would if he could get to him before any of the others did. Now the obvious target was Joe Tumlinson. That Tumlinson was considered a fervent member of the Sutton party, but had been married to a Taylor, underscores the fact that the troubles of South Central Texas were indeed a family feud, and not an exaggerated series of criminals acting against peaceful law-abiding citizens , although there were criminals on both sides. “Captain Joe,” as he was frequently called, had married Johanna Taylor on April 2, 1832. She was a sister of William Riley Taylor, a brother of Pitkin who had lost his life due to Sutton’s bullets in early 1873. Perhaps to bring the families closer together, William Riley Taylor had married Joe’s sister, Elizabeth Tumlinson. Johanna died in 1858, leaving Joe a widower with 150 Chapte 8—Killing Intensifies no children. Joe then married Elizabeth Newman, their union producing three children, who created the link with the other group in the feud, that aligned with Bill Sutton. Daughter Ann married L. B. Wright, who became a justice of the peace in DeWitt County. Son John J. “Peg Leg” married Isabelle Cresap, a sister of Sam H. Cresap who joined the Sutton side during the feud. The third child, Martha E. “Matt,” married William W. Wells, who also joined the Sutton side. Joe Tumlinson had had extensive experience fighting prior to the outbreak of the feud. He had fought Indians and Mexicans prior to fighting Anglos, mainly the Taylors. He had served as a ranger under Capt. Robert M. Coleman in 1835 and 1836. He was at San Jacinto on April 21, 1836. After his marriage to Elizabeth Newman he settled down permanently in DeWitt County. When Governor Davis created the State Police force, Joe Tumlinson became a private to work in DeWitt County. But he was apparently too independent, and was dismissed on April 17, 1871, for refusing to obey orders.1 He continued to raise stock, and worked with Bill Sutton in his feud with the Taylor party.2 As if killing their enemies one or two at a time was terribly inefficient, Hardin and the Taylor following now conceived a plan to lay siege to the Tumlinson home and force them out with fire—the nineteenth-century equivalent of the Molotov cocktail—and then shoot them down as they fled the flames. If it succeeded the way Hardin intended, it would be a dramatic engagement with the enemy, and rid the countryside of the vigilantes. In a move typical of his thinking, Hardin recalled his plan of laying siege as a defensive maneuver rather than an act of aggression,. The inspiration for the plan was Hardin learning “of a mob of fifty men” led by Tumlinson “coming into our neighborhood to kill and raid us in revenge” for the death of Helm.3 Hardin with a dozen or so vengeful combatants concluded to “go and meet them” where they were making their headquarters at Joe Tumlinson’s place, only several miles west of Yorktown in DeWitt County. Hardin’s group learned there were about fifty men together “and that at night most of them slept on the galleries .” The initial plan, was to “slip up to the gallery and if we did this Chapte 8—Killing Intensifies 151 undiscovered, to fire upon the sleeping mob,” when the Hardin party arrived at Tumlinson’s at 2:00 a.m. This improbable plan had to be aborted when the Tumlinson dogs heard noises and awakened the sleeping men with their barking. In response, Hardin...

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